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Church's Hands Are Tied: Jesus Blamed
Abstract: Archbishop says it's all Jesus' fault that the church cannot ordain women.
In a L’Osservatore Romano interview regarding the recent decree by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on the ordination of women, the secretary for the CDF, Archbishop Angelo Amato, declared that the reason only men can be ordained to the priesthood is that, however much church officials might wish to do otherwise, "the Catholic Church is not authorized to change the will of her founder, Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the participation in the life and mission of the Church, women cannot receive the sacrament of Holy Orders and therefore, they cannot carry out the functions proper to the ministerial priesthood." Archbishop Amato stopped short of declaring himself to be a "quiet ally" in the cause of women's ordination.
Archbishop Amato explained that the Church’s teaching on this matter is founded upon the "free and sovereign will of Jesus Christ, who only called men to be apostles." The Church is bound by the decision of the Lord Himself, he stressed. "For this reason the ordination of women is not possible."
